Hammers fight back for super victory

11:33am Saturday 17th May 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

Lakeside Hammers 48, Eastbourne Eagles 45

IN what can only described as the best and most exciting meeting of the season, The Hammers pulled themselves from the depths of despair to snatch Friday's Elite League points in a dramatic encounter.

After heat seven, the Hammers were 10 points down, and did not look like getting anything out of the meeting. But they clawed their way back, showing true spirit to take the win, wrapping it up in heat 14.

Joonas Kylmakorpi, at reserve seems somewhat of a sensation, with an obvious return to the top five looming,. He virtually carried the Hammers through the first half of the meeting and continues his upward rise in form after a poor start to the season and finished with an amazing 18+2 points.

In the end he received solid backing from Andreas Jonsson and Leigh Lanham, who both looked poor at the start of the meeting, but showed their true class in coming back to top form towards the end.

Eastbourne played their part in a fantastic meeting, and dealt with the loss of Lee Richardson earlier on in the week, with GP rider Scott Nicholls spearheading the team with 15 points. He got solid back up from fellow Brit Edward Kennett.

The Hammers started off devoid of their recent form and were finding it difficult. Not getting out of the start was the main fault, leaving themselves too much battling from the back to do and they lost four of the first seven rides, finding themselves ten points behind.

At that point, the only rider showing any real fight was Kylmakorpi, already having his fourth ride of the night, with Lubos Tomicek absent because of illness.

Lakeside played their cards early, using Kylmakorpi as a tactical rider in heat eight, after going the ten points behind required to use a tactical rider and it worked in their favour as Lewis Bridger fell and the Finn and Leigh Lanham lead the team to an 8-1 heat maximum reducing the deficit to just three points at 24-27.

In heat 10, the comeback was complete as Lanham and Andreas Jonsson led from start to finish, with Lanham managing to hold off the constant pressure from Nicholls to send the large crowd into raptures.

But that cheer soon turned into woe when the battling Eagles came back again, determined to get the most out of the meeting, and took the lead again in heat 12. With Adam Shields not fully fit from his shoulder injury, he managed only second place and with the Swede Ricky Kling struggling at the back, the much improved Cameron Woodward took the win, with Simon Gustaffson providing good back up in third.

However, the Hammers were not going to give up and reversed the scores back into their favour with Jonsson coming up trumps and Jonas Davidsson managing to pass Ed Kennett.

Heat 14 proved to be the most important of the night, and burdened with the pressure that a heat maximum would have won the meeting for the Hammers, Leigh Lanham was selected as Tomicek's replacement with Kylmakorpi his partner.

And the duo worked perfectly, both passing Woodward to seal the win on the night to send the home fans crazy.

The final heat was some what of an anti climax, as, with the meeting won, Jon Cook selected Lanham and Davidsson, with the former managing to get past Kennett, but Nicholls took the heat win for the Eagles to end the meeting on a high.

This was speedway at its best and was a brilliant advert for the sport, but the result was important for the Hammers in order to keep themselves near the top of the table and within touching distant of the top teams.

If the Hammers' continue to show the form that they did in the latter half of this meeting then they will in no doubt be a match for any team in the Elite League, and should be there or thereabout comes the end of the season.

Lakeside Hammers 48: Andreas Jonsson 10, Leigh Lanham 10+3, Adam Shields 3+1, Lubos Tomicek Rider Replacement, Jonas Davidsson 6, Ricky Kling 1+1, Joonas Kylmakorpi 18+2.

Eastbourne Eagles 45: Scott Nicholls 15, Lewis Bridger 3, Lee Richardson Rider Replacement, Cameron Woodward 9+1, Edward Kennett 13, Simon Gustaffson 3, Nick Simmons 2+1.